Here is the Restoration Church reading plan for the first week of June....

Goal for the Month: Read and study through the books of Jonah and Nahum

Goal for Week 1: Read "An Introduction to Jonah and Nahum" as well as both books in their entirety

*Each week we will be posting a new goal for reading and studying through these two books*

An Introduction to Jonah and Nahum

Jonah...

Because it tells of a fish swallowing a man, many have dismissed the book of Jonah as fiction. But 2 Kings 14:25 mentions Jonah as living during the time of Jeroboam II (about 793-753 B.C.), and Jesus referred to Jonah as a historical person (Matthew 12:39-41). Unlike other prophetic books, Jonah focuses on the prophet himself rather than on his message. When God sent Jonah to Nineveh he rebelled, was swallowed by a fish, repented, and fulfilled his mission after all. When Nineveh repented, the reason for Jonah’s rebellion became clear; he had feared that God would forgive the Nineties; and when God did forgive them, Jonah resented it (4:1-3). The book lists no author, but only Jonah himself could have known all the facts it records.

Nahum...

When Jonah preached repentance on the streets of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, the people responded and were spared. A century later, sometime between 663 and 612 B.C., Nahum preached in a time when Nineveh would not repent. Nineveh, which had destroyed Israel’s northern kingdom in 722, itself fell to Babylon in 612 - just a few years after Nahum’s warning. The Assyrians were notorious for the brutality of their treatment of other nations. Nahum declared, however, that God is sovereign: He punishes whom He will, and they are powerless to stop Him. Much of Nahum’s prophecy was directed to the people of Judah, who could rejoice at the good news (1:15) of Nineveh’s impending fall.